Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

avecigrec said:
I started a little over two years ago on a Crosley that was gifted to me and am Currently on an AT LP60 - best thing I've done for myself so far. The Crosley was noticeably shit on so many records. Especially on the innermost track or two of anything bassy. But I dunno that I would've been able to pick out any pressing issues with it, because I probably would've just attributed it to the player itself.

I would love to pitch up to an AT LP120, but need to stop buying so many damn records to do so! 🤔
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I don't mean to belittle anyone reading these comments who does own a Crosley, it's truly not my intention... I understand that obviously budgets differ wildly person to person. But I just hope that if people are spending all this money on vinyl and then playing it on a suitcase Crosley that they understand they are actively destroying their records at a crazy fast rate vs almost literally any other player out there. Like that needle and arm are carving new grooves in those expensive records and they will sound noticeably worse on a decent player after only a couple of spins. Go buy any cheap vintage player you can find and it'll be worlds better for your vinyl than those things.
 
Mather said:
I don't mean to belittle anyone reading these comments who does own a Crosley, it's truly not my intention... I understand that obviously budgets differ wildly person to person. But I just hope that if people are spending all this money on vinyl and then playing it on a suitcase Crosley that they understand they are actively destroying their records at a crazy fast rate vs almost literally any other player out there. Like that needle and arm are carving new grooves in those expensive records and they will sound noticeably worse on a decent player after only a couple of spins. Go buy any cheap vintage player you can find and it'll be worlds better for your vinyl than those things.
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It's easy enough to get caught up with a Crossley if you don't know anythings about vinyl though. Like you just walk into somewhere like Sonic Boom, or Urban Outfitters and they have a bunch of different variations, they're cheap and you can pick up the latest Adele records you've been eyeing while you're there. Nobody will tell you the pitfalls of them, or that if you pay an almost negligible amount more, you can get a truly decent starter player that you can just hook up to any bluetooth setup, or even computer speakers you have laying around.

You don't really stop to think that what you're buying can actually DAMAGE the media it's meant to play.
 
bdrummond said:
It's easy enough to get caught up with a Crossley if you don't know anythings about vinyl though. Like you just walk into somewhere like Sonic Boom, or Urban Outfitters and they have a bunch of different variations, they're cheap and you can pick up the latest Adele records you've been eyeing while you're there. Nobody will tell you the pitfalls of them, or that if you pay an almost negligible amount more, you can get a truly decent starter player that you can just hook up to any bluetooth setup, or even computer speakers you have laying around.

You don't really stop to think that what you're buying can actually DAMAGE the media it's meant to play.
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Agreed that's why I wrote that previous post in a desperate attempt to inform all of the people who aren't on this forum and will never see it.
I think my logic is sound.
 
4080 said:
Wait, what?

View attachment 131394
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Yeah, I feel like too many people accepted it (sadly I am here and I take responsibility) because they didn't want the hassle of asking for 4 replacements from VMP because they KNOW the 4 replacements will all be equally shit. I don't know what their repress threshold is, but I'm guessing it fell JUST under it. There was no way that wasn't a pressing wide issue.

EDIT: Having to record and upload every defect to prove you aren't insane doesn't help either.
 
Ericj32 said:
Took me a while to realize that was a flute on his shoulder.
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I have said it before Herbie Mann does two things and he does those two things very well; Herbie Mann Flutes and Herbie Mann Fucks. Thankfully, the album art photographer was able to capture him at one of those rare post-fuck/pre-flute moments. Probably on his way to your mom’s fridge to grab a Gatorade.
 
avecigrec said:
I started a little over two years ago on a Crosley that was gifted to me and am Currently on an AT LP60 - best thing I've done for myself so far. The Crosley was noticeably shit on so many records. Especially on the innermost track or two of anything bassy. But I dunno that I would've been able to pick out any pressing issues with it, because I probably would've just attributed it to the player itself.

I would love to pitch up to an AT LP120, but need to stop buying so many damn records to do so! 🤔
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You should look into a secondhand turntable. I’ve never purchased new. My primary turntable I use now is 1970s era Technics. I purchased it off of Offer Up for for $30. It works great with very little maintenance required. Getting a counter weight for your tone arm is a major plus especially if you’re spinning any valuable albums.
 
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bdrummond said:
People like to shit on the LP60, but honestly it's a decent little player. With a decent enough set of speakers it does a great job, and you can really start to hear the difference in audiophile records. That said, I had a couple of complaints about it:

1) Skips like crazy on certain hot cut records. (latest press of Talking Heads "Speaking in Tongues" for example)
2) It's unforgiving and skips if your floor carries enough vibration from your movements. Probably because it's so damn light it feels like there's nothing to it.
3) Auto return is just another part that can break down. Mine broke down after two years (returns the tone arm and then immediately starts up again), which led me to upgrade to the LP120.

Otherwise it's pretty much dummy proof and can last you several years from starting off with the hobby. I wish I started out with it to begin with as the Crosley scratched some of my favourite records that I bought at the beginning. They skipped when jumping into the LP60, and the skips are non-existent on the LP120, but I know the scratches themselves are there and it drives me insane.
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I have an LP60 for listening to records in my living room through a Sonos where music volume is never terribly high and kids are usually screaming and running around so it's not exactly an audiophile listening chamber, but I have to agree the value is tremendous for what the LP60 is and my only complaint is the skipping from vibration that you mentioned. When the kids want to dance it usually means a lot of jumping around the room so I feel limited in what I am comfortable putting under that grasshopper of a needle!
 
TCell said:
The greatest trick VMP has pulled is convincing its customers that replacing poorly pressed records is good customer customer service rather than the minimum expectation.
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it is kinda crazy. obviously i know pressing issues can occur. but VMP has way more of these happening than any other company I have dealt with in the past year. that's probably the real reason why the price hikes happened. "free shipping" and album replacements/typos/pressing errors are baked into the price of a sub now.
 
MikeH said:
it is kinda crazy. obviously i know pressing issues can occur. but VMP has way more of these happening than any other company I have dealt with in the past year. that's probably the real reason why the price hikes happened. "free shipping" and album replacements/typos/pressing errors are baked into the price of a sub now.
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To be honest, it all starts at GZ for the most part...and outside of VMP most GZ pressings have been complete shit as well. To the point where I'm going to have to have my discogs open every time I'm at a record store to see where a record is pressed going forward. Now that Classics has gone to GZ, VMP has now ensured all 4 tracks are going to be CS nightmares.
 
bdrummond said:
To be honest, it all starts at GZ for the most part...and outside of VMP most GZ pressings have been complete shit as well. To the point where I'm going to have to have my discogs open every time I'm at a record store to see where a record is pressed going forward. Now that Classics has gone to GZ, VMP has now ensured all 4 tracks are going to be CS nightmares.
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I have surprisingly gotten decent GZ pressings that are non-VMP lately...so I kinda think something else is going on. Could be that they are just using the lowest tier of QC? And people seem to say that warping is not related to the pressing plant although I don't know that's entirely true or not...
 
MikeH said:
I have surprisingly gotten decent GZ pressings that are non-VMP lately...so I kinda think something else is going on. Could be that they are just using the lowest tier of QC? And people seem to say that warping is not related to the pressing plant although I don't know that's entirely true or not...
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That has not been my experience.
I can't remember the last time I've gotten a clean GZ pressing, and I'm buying WAY too many albums. Some worse than others.
 
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I just did a quick search from over the past 3 months. So some of these aren't recent pressings to be fair, but I think Phoenix is the only clean one I have here. Cash I think is by far the worst of the bunch. Meters is pretty good, only minor surface noise on I think two tracks.
 
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